With good buddy Tyler Haasch. Rain at the Cut Bank Trailhead altered our plans to climb from the boundary trail, so we headed up the maintained trail towards Morningstar Lake instead. The weather cleared about an hour into our hike, so we left the trail and bushwhacked up towards a large waterfall emitting from the great basin west of Kupunkamint. Followed a mostly class II route up and across talus following the south ridge to the summit from there. Delighted to experience an extremely calm summit! Descended the large scree basin that heads south a little ways west of the summit - enjoyed 1,000 feet of mixed scree and snow sliding. Encountered rain as we entered the forest on our way down, which made for a wet 1/2 hour of bushwhacking before we rejoined the trail a few hundred yards west of Cut Bank Campground.

Alan Wiley and I attempted Kupunkamint and White Calf, but only made it to the saddle next to Kupunkamint due to the unbelievable wind. We were both blown over at least once before reaching the saddle. I've experienced lots of wind before, but nothing like that. We guessed it would have taken another 10-15 to stroll to the top if it were windless.

We encountered simlilar winds on our summit attempt June 25, 2011. Turned around no more than 10 minutes from the top. Fortunately we were able to brace the wind long enough to briefly take in the spectacular view from the summit ridge! We followed a series of meadows back towards the Cut Bank road, and to our surprise, we encountered an old trail that lead directly back to the ranger station! A fantastic day in the park!

The morning was cloudy and windy which wasn't a big surprise. The worst part is probably the beginning just because of all the plants and the mud. The bushwhack and the climb to the summit itself is fun and easy. The sun came out later, but the wind stayed. The summit had views of it all. Peaks in Cut Bank, Logan Pass, Two Medicine and St. Mary's. There was too much wind to continue along the ridge. Climbed with Rebelgrizz and JFK.

I took a trio of Havre natives and a fine southern gentleman up White Calf from the Divide saddle, we took the ridge to Kupunkamint and then to the unnamed peak and finally headed for Curly Bear. The wind was quite significant and seemed to shift in whatever direction was least helpful! We hit the "gap in the ridge" that Edwards describes- my group was pretty exhausted at that point and the prospect of losing a lot of elevation and the regaining even more seemed a bit of reach at 4pm. So we hiked down a gully next to a neat little waterfall, ran down some scree and eventually hit the burn. Hiking through the burn was actually a lot of fun- not much deadfall at all (yet). Eventually we hit the Red Eagle Trail and hiked out another 7 miles or so.

We named the trip The Kupunkamint Carousel because of all the ups and downs of the little "peaks" on the ridge, and also because we basically went in a big circle. Clever, I know.

There was a register on White Calf- 2 groups climbed it in 07 and 08, but we were the only ones up there in 09 so far! No registers or even cairns on the other peaks- it felt like we were the first people up there, which was a pretty neat sensation. Jim, how did you get around the "gap in the ridge" to continue on to Curly Bear?

You did Kupunkamint from Divide? It's my understanding that cliffs between Divide and White Calf are severe enough so as to almost preclude doing Divide/White Calf/Kupunkamint together. That must have been a long day! There are, of course, climbers in the G.M.S. that would be more than capable....

Climbed with GMS, with intent of doing both Kupunkamint and White Calf, but forced off summit by horrific winds—there were 13 in our party, and while on the upper reaches of the mountain, every one of us was blown off our feet at least once! So rather than deal with the wind on the ridge to White Calf, we retreated.

I've climbed enough in GNP that spectacular views should never come as a surprise, but for some reason I had underestimated Kupunkamint, and was a little surprised at the stunning summit vista it presented. Very, very nice! And despite the wind (which was unexpected, because the valley was calm—not usually the case east of the Continental Divide), a memorable-in-a-good-way outing.